Former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh dead at 91. In his three terms in office, the Indiana Democrat crafted the 25th Amendment to the Constitution (updating the rules for presidential succession) and the 26th Amendment (lowering the national voting age from 21 to 18). He also was the lead sponsor for Title IX of the Higher Education Act, which prohibited gender discrimination in colleges and universities, and co-authored the (never ratified) Equal Rights Amendment.

Post title comes from an early campaign song: "Hey look him over, he's my kind of guy. His first name is Birch, his last name is Bayh."

Bayh did not always grab the same kind of national attention as Hubert Humphrey or Ted Kennedy, but he was certainly in their league.

Speaking of Kennedy, Bayh pulled him out of the wreckage when a plane they were both riding in crashed in 1964 and Kennedy broke his back. Two others died in the crash.posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 9:16 AM on March 14 [6 favorites]

I benefited greatly from my membership in the Musicians' Union in Indiana in the 1970s, but even then, it was not Michigan, Wisconsin, or even Illinois. The KKK and even the Nazis had significant enclaves in the state for much of the 20th century. But Birch Bayh belonged to an era where belonging to one party or the other did not define you as it does today.posted by kozad at 7:35 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]

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